Current treatment with anticancer drugs suffers from the drawbacks of systemic toxicity, drug resistance and limited cellular entry. For this reason the development and engineering of efficient delivery systems with the ability to enhance cellular uptake of existing potent drugs is needed. The current advances in nanomedicine allowed for the developments of nanotechnology- based delivery vectors for small molecules, proteins and nucleic acid. Carbon nanotubes (CNT) have attracted a lot of attention because of their nanoneedle penetration inside the cells and are now showing great promises for cancer therapy. While most of the work is done in vitro on 2D monolayer cell culture, these have different characteristics from the more complex in vivo tumour models and clinical reality. It is well known that anticancer drugs and even delivery systems exhibit poor therapeutic indices due to their limited diffusion in solid tumours as a result of the elevated interstitial pressure, hypoxia, cell packing and the extracellular matrix. Multicellular tumour spheroids represent a 3D model of avascular regions found in many solid tumour tissues. They have extensive cell-cell contacts, elevated interstitial pressure, hypoxia and the presence of quiescent cells. Because of the essential knowledge that can be generated from the use of tumour spheroids, they are now more widely used as a bridge between traditional planar cell studies and the in vivo assessment of the delivered therapeutics.
This project will investigate the delivery of anticancer drugs using CNT as delivery vectors inside 3D multicellular spheroids and determine the effectiveness of CNT to act as molecular transporters of therapeutics within tumour spheroids.
Informal enquiries should be directed to Dr Hanene Ali-Boucetta, email: [Email Address Removed]
https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/clinical-sciences/Ali-Boucetta-Hanene.aspx
To be considered for this studentship, please send the following documents to Dr Hanene Ali-Boucetta [Email Address Removed]:
• A detailed CV, including your nationality and country of birth;
• Names and addresses of two referees;
• A covering letter highlighting your research experience/capabilities;
• Copies of your degree certificates with transcripts;
• Evidence of your proficiency in the English language, if applicable.